Renault India, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

http://www.renault.co.in

Company Phone:044-67480777

Corporate Profile

Renault, the French automaker, founded in 1898 has its headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt. The company has formed an alliance with Nissan. Renault and Nissan are leading electric car development among major car companies, investing 4 billion euros ($5.16 billion) in eight electric vehicles over the next 3 - 4 years. Renault owns the Roman automaker Automobile Dacia, the Korean automaker Renault Samsung Motors, RCI Banque and Motrio. Renault sold Renault Agriculture to CLAAS in 2008.

Spanning over 118 countries, Renault sold 3.19 million cars in 2010. Renault also set up a network of 18,000 sites all over the world. Renault sells most of its car in Europe. In fact, it sells 63 per cent of its cars to Western Europe as of 2010.

The Laguna and Clio are the current most popular cars. The revenues for the year 2010 total to 38,971 million euros. The company has a total workforce of 1, 22,615 employees as of 2010. Carlos Ghosn is the current Chief Executive Officer of Renault. ISO 140001 certified 100 per cent of Renault industrial sites. The company in partnership with Nissan has sold 72, 76,398 vehicles as of December 2010.

Company History

Renault was founded in 1898 by Louis Renault. Louis invented a cycle called De Dion-Bouon and turned it into a four-wheel car. He had a bet with his friends about taking the car up the slope of the Lepic Street in Montmartre and after he won the bet, he received an order for twelve such cars. During the next twenty years, Renault was involved in the production of taxi cabs, trucks and in motor racing. In 1905, he received an order to make 250 taxi cabs. They also helped in the production of tanks for the First World War.

Renault set up its first production line in Billancourt in 1929. At this time Renault was nationalized and was called Régie Nationale des Usines Renault (RNUR) as on 1945.

During 1945-1975, Renault, continued to launch new cars. The launch of the 4CV the first “small car for everybody,” the Renault 4, Renault 5 and the upmarket Renault 16 gathered pace. The brand failed to conquer the US market and continued its expansion in the foreign market. In the 1980s the company launched the Renault 25 and the Espace and also entered into Formula 1 racing. However, since it was incurring losses during this time, it started focusing on its core skills.

Renault was in talks with Volvo; however these merger talks failed and in 1999, Renault took a stake in Nissan. Taking advantage of mergers and acquisitions, Renault acquired Samsung Motors and Dacia. In 2009, Renault enjoyed entering into the electric vehicle market.

Company Founder(s)

The story of Renault spans over 100 years in the automobile industry. It began in 1899 when three young men joined efforts to make cars under the family business. Louis Renault and his brothers Marcel and Fernand began producing the Renault Voiturette 1CV, which they sold to a friend of Louis’ father and started the company. While Louis was an aspiring engineer, his brothers, Marcel and Fernand were working in their father’s textile firm.

The three decided to get into racing. They achieved success in city to city races. In 1903, Marchel died in the Paris-Madrid race in an unexpected accident. Three years later, Louis’ second brother exited from the company due to health reasons, leaving Louis as the sole owner and head of the company.

Louis had three elder siblings and two younger siblings. He was born in Paris to Alfred and Berthe Renault. Louis had always been interested in engineering and mechanics. He attended Lycee Condorcet and toyed with engines. He built the Voiturette, his first car in 1898 by hiring two people.

Marcel Renault was born on 1872. He died at the age of 31. Fernand Renault died at the age of 46.

Company Milestones

1899: Louis, Marcel and Fernand founded the Renault corporation.

1903: Marcel Renault got killed in the Paris-Madrid race.

1906: Fernand resigned from the company due to health reasons. Louis remained the sole caretaker of the business.

1920: Louis Renault signed a contract with Gustave Gueudet to distribute Renault cars.

1925: The bonnet badge changed from circular to the diamond shape.

1928: Renault produced 45,809 cars and also opened its operations in London.

1929: The 8 cylinder Reinastella was introduced

1943: The Renault factory at Billancourt was attacked by the Allies

1944: Louis Renault was arrested in 1944. He was imprisoned in the French prison where he died.

1946: At Lefacheux, the rear engine 4CV was developed.

1966: Renault launched the large version of its hatchback, the Renault 16.

2004: After selling Renault Vehicles Industrials to Volvo, Renault sold 24,89,401 vehicles in 2004 and reported a 43 per cent rise in net income to 3.5 billion euros.

2008: For 2008, Renault had sold 60,90,304 vehicles globally.

2010: Renault-Nissan formed a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to supply to company with a 1.6 litre turbodiesel engine and Mercedes, in return, to supply Renault-Nissan with a 2.0 litre four-cylinder petrol engine.

Vision & Values

Renault’s vision is to be one of the top three manufacturers of cars and vans. It also aims to become one of the most profitable car companies of Europe.

Renault has four values: Pride, Innovation, Empowerment and Openness.

Pride: They always want to deliver great results and perform better than other companies.

Innovation: The company likes to innovate and take further steps in staying ahead of the competition

Empowerment: The company encourages responsibility and people taking initiative

Openness: The company has a culture where people can share their ideas and thoughts. It is a culture of collaboration.

Renault has a good team and great people. The company gives bonuses and rewards to members of the team who perform exceptionally well. They also provide customers with products they like and support services. The company also has long-term partnerships with other companies. There is collaborative talk within the organization between the various people to optimize their contribution and improvements.

Management Team

Renault consists of three groups of management: Board of Directors, Group Executive Committee and Renault Management Committee.

The Board of Directors comprises 19 members, the Group Executive Committee comprises 10 members and the Management Committee consists of 26 members.

The key people in the company are as follows:

Carlos Ghosn is the Chief Executive Officer for Renault since 2009. Prior to working at Renault, he worked as the Chief Operating Officer of Michelin's South American activities based in Brazil and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Michelin North America in 1989. He was also the Executive Vice President of Renault in 1996. Carlos is also the director of Alcoa and AvtoVAZ.

Carlos Tavares has been appointed as the Chief Operating Officer for Renault since May 30, 2011. In 2009 he assumed responsibility for operations at Nissan Americas. He was appointed Executive Vice President at Nissan, joining the Board of Directors in 2005. He joined Nissan in 2004 as Programme Director and then as Vice President, Product Strategy and Product Planning. He graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris.

Marie-Françoise Damesin joined Renault in 2005 in the capacity of Senior Vice President for Communications. She is currently the Senior Vice President for Human Resources at Renault. She has worked with Nissan Europe and her first job was at Compagnie des Wagons Lits & du Tourisme in 1979.

Odiles Desforges is the Executive Vice President, Engineering and Quality for Renault since 2009. Prior to working at Renault, she worked as the President of 3P Business Unit at Volvo trucks and at the Transport Research Institute in 1981.

Philippe Klein has been appointed as the Executive Vice President, Plan, Product Planning, Program for Renault since September 1, 2008. He joined Nissan in Tokyo as Senior Vice President, CEO /COO Office and Corporate Administration in 2007. From 2003 to 2005 he was the Vice President, Industrial System Performance Department. In 1999, he became the Vice-President in Charge of the CEO office at Nissan, Tokyo after the Renault-Nissan company was formed. He began his career at Renault in 1981 in the Engine Development Department.

On December 1, 2010, Gérard Leclercq took the charge of the Manufacturing and Logstics Department and the Group executive committee for Renault. From March 1st, 2007, he was appointed member of the Renault Management Committee and took charge of the Group Human Resources Department. In May 1999 he became Renault Vice President for Powertrain Manufacturing. He was appointed Assistant General Manager of the Renault Flins plant in 1991, then General Manager in 1993. He joined Renault in 1989, in charge of the manufacturing progress plan at the Manufacturing Department. He started his career as a research scientist with the IRSID steel research institute.

Since May 5, 2008, Katsumi Nakamura is appointed Executive Vice President, Leader of Asia Africa Management Committee. He was in charge of establishing Nissan operations in China in 2002 and in July 2003 he was appointed President, Dongfeng Motor Company Co, Ltd., Nissan's joint venture partnership in China. Two years before working at Nissan, China, he joined the Program Director department as Program Director for SUV line up and became a member of Nissan’s North America Management Committee. He started his career as engineer in Body Design and then moved to Corporate Planning and Product Planning.

Mouna Sepehri serves as the Director of the Renault CEO Office.

Jérôme Stoll serves as the Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Leader of the Europe Region Management Committee, President of Renault Retail Group.

Manufacturing Facilities

Renault along with Nissan set up a Greenfield facility in Oragadam, near Chennai by investing 5,000 crores. This was as a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tamil Nadu Government. The manufacturing facility will produce 4,00,000 cars per year and assemble Fluence in completely knocked down (CKD) format.

Renault also has a logistics center in Pune which focuses on international development of Renault. The center contributed 200 million euros of components by 2010.

The Renault Design Studio is in Mumbai, and it deals with high-profile projects including the Logan Steppe concept and does Research and Development in luxury textiles. This center is the first international design center in India for cars. It designs cars for India and international markets.

There is also a Renault-Nissan Technical Business Center that operates out of Chennai. This center is a 50-50 Joint Venture between Renault and Nissan that operates in manufacturing engineering, purchasing, design and cost management and information systems development. This center has a workforce of 1,500 employees. The center opened in 2008.

Technology

Renault technology consists of different parts that improve the appeal of the car. The gearboxes come in a manual type- where the drive changes the gears, the automated type- where a computer takes the decision to change the gear, the robotized gearbox – which has features of the manual and automatic gearbox combined. There is also an automatic gearbox – which changes gears on its own as the driver drives the car, the continuously variable transmission which allows variation of its transmission ratio, the EDC is an automatic transmission – it does not involve the clutch pedal. The gearshifts are automatic and comfortable.

Hydraulic braking is introduced as opposed to cable tension. The automatic parking brake is another feature which applies breaking pressure on the rear wheels which is adjusted to the gradient of the road.

Renault cars also have a cruise control and speed limiter. The speed limiter is used to indicate when the speed limit has been exceeded. The cruise control system shows a constant cruising speed that can’t be exceeded.

The company also has cornering lights. These lights show the obstacles that are not visible to the driver in traditional headlights.

The xenon lamps deliver a luminous flux that has higher intensity than halogen lamps for the same power consumption.

There is also a tyre pressure monitoring system that tells the driver if there is any drop in pressure. This technology has a electronic module that correlates this data with other data such as wheel rotation speed and acceleration and if there is any anomaly, it specifies the problem and the concerned wheel.

Awards & Recognition

The Renault Twingo 1.2 16V Bizu was awarded the Parker's New Car Awards 2011 City Car category. The car was competing against the Fiat 500, Ford Ka and Citroen C1.

The Clio won the European Car of the Year award twice. The R8 won the Australian Wheels Car of the Year award in 1963 and Renault 12 won this award again in 1970. This award is given by the Wheels magazine which gives an award every year (Car of the Year). The magazine has been awarding cars since 1963.

The Renault Megane 26 won the Autocar ASEAN Car of the Year Awards in the performance car category (out of a total of 4 finalists).

Renault was awarded three awards at the What Car? Awards in Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The new Twingo Renaultsport 133 Cup won the under £15,000 category, the Clio Renaultsport 200 Cup won the £15,000 to £20,000 section and the new Mégane Renaultsport 250 won the over £20,000 group. Mégane was also crowned overall ‘Hot Hatch of the Year 2010’.

The 2010 Renault Global Quality Awards in which dealerships from 36 countries took part, symbolizes the involvement of the whole sales network. In 2010 Renault conducted more than 1.2 million telephone surveys on customers. The winning dealerships scored an average percentage of recommendations of 94% for sales service and 87% for after-sales service. The company also decided to award the “Dealer of the Year” in order to ensure good customer service in 2011.

International Operations

Renault has expanded its facilities to over 118 countries all over the world. The group sales of Renault, Dacia and Samung Motors (the three brands of Renault) for the year 2010 is 31,95,810 vehicles. The company has a workforce of 1, 22,615 employees.

Renault is present in Romania, Russia, and Brazil. While it is a fast growing brand in Romania and Russia, it has a promising market in Brazil. Renault is also present in India and Turkey. It has been in the later for 40 years. Renault is also popular in South Korea, Morocco, Algeria and South Africa.

In India, Renault grows by 20% each year. Renault has manufacturing facilities with the Renault-Nissan plant in Chennai, its own sales network, a logistics centre, an engineering centre shared with the Alliance and a design centre based in Mumbai. The plant in India is at Chennai. It is set up with an investment of 45 billion Rupees.

Renault also plans to source 80 million worth of auto components from India for its overseas plants. Renault is going to make India its hub for the region of South Asia for sourcing parts for its various cars.

Renault India is one of the top three markets in the global development strategy after Brazil and Russia.

Globally, Renault has 14 per cent increase in sales in 2010 reaching 2.6 million units with 1 million units coming from outside Europe.

The company has 55% coverage of the Indian market and will reach 70% coverage by end of 2011. The company will plan to reach 89% of the Indian market by 2013.

Exports

Renault will start exports from India from 2012.

Future Plans

Renault, as part of its Renault 2016 – Drive the Change plan, aims to meet the following objectives in 2011-2013 – sales of 3 million vehicles in 2013 and two billion euros in free cash flow.

Renault India plans to launch five cars by 2013. This is part of its initiative to become one of the top three international brands in India by 2015 in terms of brand image. One of these cars is the Koleos SUV. Renault plans to launch it at below Rs. 20-lakh and it will be in the category of Honda CR-V, Chevrolet Captiva, Ford Endeavour and Toyota Fortuner. The company plans to launch in India in a few phases: Phase 1: 14 cities will have dealerships, Phase 2: 30 cities will have dealerships and Phase 3: will have 75 cities with dealerships. In terms of outlets, the strategy is to have forty outlets by 2011 and 100 sales outlets by sometime in 2012.

Renault is also shifting its focus to diesel models of cars. It will be launching the diesel variants of the car in a 70:30 diesel:petrol ratio and will be cheaper than the petrol variants.

In 2012, Renault will launch a new car in each quarter of the year. The company does not have any operations in the commercial vehicle segment but might have a plan for the future.

Our endeavor is to provide car buying consumers in India a one stop shop where they can do all their research about the latest cars in India. The Auto industry has been booming in recent times and we have moved to selling almost 2 million cars a year. The used car industry has been growing at an even faster pace.